Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

I am not a morning person. Never have been, never will be. On the days that I work, I have to get up at 5:30 am...and it's a struggle. Somehow, The Cooker Boy is an early riser- he thinks 6 am is sleeping in! The Cooker Boy loves "Brefffast Rolls" as he calls them..I call them cinnamon rolls. He woke me up at the crack of dawn We woke up early on my last weekend off, and I decided to use that time to try out the Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Roll recipe I'd looked at a thousand hundred few times. This recipe is surprisingly easy, the hardest part is rolling the dough to the right thickness to end up with rolls and not lumps, like my first batch did. Regardless of what shape they turned out to be, they tasted great! I don't think I'll ever buy canned cinnamon rolls again! (Sorry, Pillsbury!)

I made a few changes to the original recipe for a few reasons. I have no need for 7 pans of cinnamon rolls, so I cut the recipe in half. The other changes were swapping ingredients I had in the house for ingredients the recipe called for. I encourage you to visit The Pioneer Woman's website and view her recipe- the step by step photos she has are amazingly helpful!

The Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Makes 3 pans of rolls

2 cups milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 packet active dry yeast
4 cups plus 1/2 cup flour, separated
1/2 teaspoon (heaping) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (scant) baking soda
1/2 tablespoon salt
2 sticks butter, melted (more if desired)
1 cup sugar
Generous amount of cinnamon- as much or as little as you please

Combine milk, vegetable oil, and sugar in a large pot. Heat over medium-high heat until just before it boils (Scalding). Turn off the heat and let sit until lukewarm- 45 to 60 minutes. Sprinkle yeast over the mixture, and let sit for a minute.  Add 4 cups of flour and stir until combined. Cover and let rise for at least an hour.

After rising, add the remaining flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir until combined. Dough can be refrigerated at this point if you want to make the rolls later, but I like instant gratification. I made my rolls right away.

Take half of the dough and roll out into a thin rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Be careful not to roll the dough too thin..this makes for cinnamon lumps instead of rolls.

Drizzle 1/4-1/2 cup melted butter over the dough, then sprinkle 1/2 cup of sugar and desired amount of cinnamon over top. I thought I was going heavy with the cinnamon, but the taste was barely noticeable. Next time, I'm going all out.

Now comes the tricky part. Starting at the edge that is away from you, roll the dough in a neat line towards you. Keep the roll as tight as you can. Pinch the seam of the roll to seal it.

Spread 1 tablespoon of butter in a cake or pie pan. Using a very sharp knife, cut the rolls 3/4"-1 inch thick, and lay in the buttered pan.**

Repeat this process with the other half of the dough. Let the rolls rise for an additional 20-30 minutes before baking for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

** With my first batch looking like lumps, I decided to use my muffin tin instead of a cake pan. I drizzled a bit of melted butter into each tin, and sprinkled a bit of cinnamon and sugar on top. I placed a chunk of dough into each tin, and topped with more butter, cinnamon and sugar as most of the "goo" leaked out during the rolling process. These tasted just as great as the rolls!

While the rolls are baking, prepare your glaze. The original Maple frosting sounds sinful, but I had neither maple flavoring or coffee in my house. We all know I have a thing for salted caramel, so I improvised and came up with the following delicious glaze.

Salted Caramel Glaze

8 oz powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/8 cup melted butter
1/2 cup caramel (store bought, or homemade- recipe follows)
1/2 teaspoon salt (if using the caramel recipe below, omit additional salt)


Whisk sugar, milk and butter together in a medium bowl. When combined, stir in caramel and salt. Pour over rolls immediately as they come out of the oven, and tilt the pan to spread the love!

I can't tell if he's supervising, or wants to dive into the rolls!

Sea Salt Caramel from Doughmesstic

1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup sour cream

Combine cream and salt in a small saucepan and heat over low until salt is dissolved. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, add sugar and corn syrup. They will not combine well until the sugar starts to melt.
If you have a candy thermometer, cook over high until mixture reaches 350 degrees. If your child thinks the thermometer is a toy (like mine does), cook until the mixture is a light amber color. Remove from heat- the mixture will continue cooking, and the color will darken to a nice caramel color. ( I cooked it to the caramel color the first time, and while it looked great, the caramel had a very bitter taste..I burnt it. Thanks to Susan @doughmesstic for your help!)

Stir in the cream mixture and vanilla, then whisk in sour cream. Let the caramel cool to room temperature, and transfer to an airtight container to refrigerate.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!!

French Bread

I've loved all things French since I was in high school a few months several years ago. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel to France twice during my high school years. I was blessed with a French teacher, Helen Bickell, who wanted her students to see more than just the insides of a classroom and a book. Mrs. Bickell wanted her students to experience the French culture, language and people for themselves- and she arranged trips for those of us that wanted that experience. Those two trips taught me so much, not only about all things French, but about myself as well. I'm forever grateful to Mrs. Bickell for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime...twice!

I've always been a picky eater, and as a teenager I wasn't open to experimenting with food the way I am now...So I ate quite a bit of french bread and cheese during those trips. At this point in my life, I could live on fresh baked french bread, brie and wine and die happy! Until a few weeks ago, I never thought about trying to make french bread at home. I saw this recipe on Brown Eyed Baker, and decided I'd give it a try. It seemed simple enough, and didn't require a truckload of ingredients..just a bit of time.

I've made this recipe twice so far. I'd say both attempts turned out ok, but I think I could improve my technique a bit and get better results. The bread from the first two attempts tasted pretty good but I had a bit of trouble forming baguettes the first time around, so the second time I made a Boule  I've read up on bread baking over at The Fresh Loaf, and have some new tricks I'd like to try. I'm going to make this again, and use a The Fresh Loaf's Preferment tip this time around and see how it goes.

French Bread from Brown Eyed Baker
Makes 2 baguettes or Boules

3 cups bread or unbleached flour
1 package dry yeast
1 1/4 cups hot water (120-130 degrees)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon warm water

Add 1 1/2-2 cups flour, hot water and yeast to a large bowl. Mix vigorously by hand or with an electric mixer. You should be able to mix with a mixer at this point without placing too much strain on the mixer. As the gluten begins to develop, the batter will become smooth and pull away from the sides of your bowl. The dough may start to climb your beaters- scrape it back down into the bowl with a spatula. Mix for 10 minutes. Dissolve the salt in the water, and add to dough. Mix for an additional 30 seconds.

If your mixer has a dough hook: place it on mixer and add the rest of the flour, 1/4 cup at a time until the dough forms and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.( Approximately 10 minutes)  If it is still sticky and clings to the bowl, add flour a few sprinkles at a time until it is no longer sticky.

If you're kneading by hand (like me): add the rest of the flour, 1/2 cup at a time stirring with a wooden spoon until it's too difficult to stir. At this point, begin working by hand. When the dough is a solid (slightly shaggy) mass, turn it onto your lightly floured work surface and knead by hand. Knead for approximately 10 minutes. An aggressive push-turn-fold method works best (and serves as stress relief!) If the dough remains sticky, add a few sprinkles of flour at a time. Occasionally throw your dough down onto the counter just because  its fun and sounds cool to encourage the dough to develop.

Place the dough in a large, greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave at room temperature for two hours.The second time I followed this recipe, I found that placing my dough in the warmer garage yielded a better rise. The dough will triple in volume and most likely be pushing against the plastic wrap when the time is up.

Turn the dough back out onto the lightly floured work surface, and knead again for approximately 3 minutes. Place back into the greased bowl, cover with wax or parchment paper, and return to previous rising location. Let rise for 90 minutes.

At this point, your dough should be light and airy. Turn back onto your work surface, and punch the dough down (ignoring your child as he tells you that it isn't nice to hit.) Divide your dough in half, and let rest for 5 minutes before shaping into desired shape.  For boules, shape dough into round balls. For baguettes, roll and lengthen until 16-20" long and 3-4" in diameter. Place dough on greased baking sheets, cover with a towel and let rise for approximately 1 hour. The dough will double in size and have formed a light crust.

Place a metal (not glass) pan on the bottom rack of your oven, and preheat to 450 degrees. Let oven sit at 450 for 20 minutes before placing dough inside. 5 minutes before baking, VERY carefully pour 1 cup water into the pan in the oven. Using a sharp knife, make diagonal slits on the top of baguettes, or tic-tac-toe designs on boules. Place baking sheet in the oven, and bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, and test loaf by turning over and tapping on the bottom. If the crust is hard, and has a hollow sound, the bread is done.

Cool loaves on a cooling rack, and enjoy!

Let me know what you think!